What is prequalification?

October 08, 2018 05:35

Updated

What does it mean to “prequalify” for a loan or a credit card?

If you’ve received a notice from a bank or other lender saying that you’ve prequalified for one of their products, it sounds like a firm promise that you’ll definitely get the loan or credit card if you apply. But getting prequalified for a financial product is far from a final decision about whether or not you’ll actually get approved for it. If you’ve been prequalified for a loan or credit card, you should think of it as a “soft yes” to your application, not a firm one.

That “soft yes” comes from a preliminary review of your personal and financial information, including a soft check of your credit. Because the bank or lender isn’t doing a detailed analysis of your credit, income, and debt-to-income ratio during the prequalification process, it is unable to say with certainty whether or not you’re definitely a good candidate for the financial product.

NerdWallet currently offers prequalification tools to help consumers better understand their likelihood of qualifying for certain financial products. Again, though, it’s important to keep in mind that getting prequalified for one of these products is not a guarantee that you’ll be approved by the lender when you submit your full application.

What’s the point of prequalifying for a loan or credit card? Why not just submit an application directly with a bank or lender?

Every time you apply for credit (think, loans and credit cards) a hard check of your credit is performed. This will give the lender you’re applying with a detailed look at your credit history, to help it determine whether or not you’re a good candidate for the product you’ve applied for. This can sometimes generate a firm yes or no decision about whether you’re approved within minutes of your application.

The drawback is that a hard check of your credit will cause your credit score to drop. For example, if you submit several credit card applications in a short period of time, hoping to get approved for one of them, this could have a substantial, negative impact on your credit score.

This is where a prequalification tool can come in handy. You’ll submit a few basic pieces of information about yourself and your finances, and you can find out whether you’re prequalified for a credit card or loan based on that information. Since no hard check of your credit is performed in the process, you can get a sense of whether or not you’ll be approved for a product without losing any points on your credit score. This will help you make informed choices about which loans or credit cards you should submit formal applications for.

What are prequalification decisions based on?

Every lender is looking for different qualities in its borrowers, so there’s no hard-and-fast set of criteria that every lender is using when it makes a prequalification decision.

Generally, though, the bank or lender will need to review the following to determine if you prequalify for a personal loan or credit card:

Your credit (based on a soft review of your credit report).

Your income.

Your age and citizenship status.

Your other debts and monthly financial obligations.

Your employment status.

The reason you’d like to borrow (for personal loans).

Are you selling my information to banks when I use a prequalification tool on NerdWallet?

No. NerdWallet does not sell your information to third parties for marketing purposes.

NerdWallet works with some of the biggest names in the credit card and loans markets to offer our members good options as they select financial products. In order to get a personalized, realistic sense of what your options are, NerdWallet will need to share your prequalification application with these partners to see if one is willing to prequalify you for a loan or credit card. The information is not being sold, just shared with our partners so that they can review it and (hopefully) make you a personalized offer.

I’ve been prequalified for a loan or a credit card. Now what?

If you’ve been prequalified with one of our partners, the next step is to finish the full application for the product you’re interested in. The steps for doing this are explained in the email you received that told you you were prequalified.

Just keep in mind that it’s still possible you’ll get rejected for the product. Again, prequalifying for a loan or credit card is not a guarantee that you’ll get approved when your full application for the product is reviewed by the lender.

What happens if I don’t prequalify for a loan or credit card?

If you haven’t been prequalified for a loan or credit card right now, there’s nothing else you need to do for the moment. You may receive what’s known as an “adverse action” notice from one of our lending partners with whom you did not prequalify, formally notifying you that your application was not approved. Don’t be alarmed if you receive an adverse action notice - again, it’s just a formality, and does not mean that a hard review of your credit was performed.

You can try again in 30 days to prequalify for a credit card or loan. If you’d like personalized advice about how to prepare to prequalify, please send our Nerds a note on this pagewith as many details as possible about your financial status and the type of product you’d like to prequalify for. (To protect your privacy and security, they can’t see the information you entered on your prequalification form, so you’ll need to provide some details about yourself in your email). They’ll be happy to help however they can!

You can also check out these resources for more help with improving your chances of prequalifying in the future:

Disclaimer: NerdWallet strives to keep its information accurate and up to date. This information may be different than what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider or specific product’s site. All financial products, shopping products and services are presented without warranty. When evaluating offers, please review the financial institution’s Terms and Conditions. Pre-qualified offers are not binding. If you find discrepancies with your credit score or information from your credit report, please contact TransUnion® directly.

Advertiser Disclosure: So how do we make money? We receive compensation from our partners when someone applies or gets approved for a financial product through our site. But, the results of our tools (like our credit card comparison tool) and editorial reviews are based on quantitative and qualitative assessments of product features — nothing else. Compensation may influence the products we review and write about, the order in which categories appear in “best of” articles, whether products appear on our site and where they’re placed. While we try to feature as many product offers on our site as we can maintain (1,200+ credit cards and financial products!), we recognize that our site does not feature every company or financial product available on the market.